Twilit Eclipse
by Riku of Darkness
Summary: The twilit warrior of the darkness... It was his gift, a power that was his and his alone... But everyone knows that the darkness is much like a demon... Being only 'half' doesn't seem too scary...but if it ever went 'further'...


**_Happy Birthday Aki-chan!_**

-_Sora grin_- Hehe... Well, I kept my promise, despite life's intense desire to make me fail. But you're too special to be let down. The lack of certain characters in this document thing is vexing right now... I can't convey anything properly with only letters... -_Sigh_- But it's your birthday present posted like I said I would... Yeiiness!

Oh! And I have the most awesome plots floating around my grey matter just waiting to be written... The most recent being yesterday when Riku attacked me in my car on my way to school. I was ready to throw him out the window... He always inspires me when I have NO time to do anything with it... But he's all happy right now... So I can't stay mad at him for long...

**Dedication: **I'm not sure how obvious I've made myself, but this 'interesting' scene is dedicated to **_xAkix_**. Not just because it's her b-day, but also because of the themes within the scene itself. I began to wonder: What if Riku's ability of darkness was a reflection of Inuyasha's uncontrollable demon blood (without Tetsusaiga)? And since Aki-chan's the best Inu writer I know, I think thanks rightly belong to her. Arigatou Aki-chan!

* * *

_As he turns, the pale moonlight slices across his hardened aquamarines, but fails miserably in its attempt to enter the cold verdant. As though his darkness controlled the clouds, the atmospheric blankets moved towards the source of that illumination... An event that she would never forget as all hope was silenced by the..._

**_

* * *

_**

**_Twilit Eclipse_**

* * *

Despite herself, she cringed as the final Heartless exploded into a chilling spray of wet obsidian that spattered over the ground with a haunting splash. It dripped heavily from the cheeks and hair of the attacker, inky droplets plummeting through the silent atmosphere as he turned. The black 'life' has stained his entity, and it called up an acidic burn to her eyes.

_**Poisoned Ivory... Tarnished silver...**_

"Was that all your pathetic entity could muster? Those feeble excuses of Heartless? You insult me." He glared at his original assailant, a bloodthirsty growl besetting his life-soaked lips. The obsidian doused ground revered as the black plasma upon the stones evaporated into the sublime milieu. But as it did, it paused to hover about the one that spilt it. Like the pitch-black flames of hell, the flickering death framed his violent entity as it licked hungrily at the air. It dissipated shortly after but the image lingered painfully in her mind.

'_He can't be..._'

"Afraid so. Though it took you long enough to destroy 'those feeble excuses'. But...I guess the result was the same regardless... Heh...heh..." A venomous smirk manipulated the corrupted boy's lips as his enemy's amused words reached him, the atmosphere growing tenser and much more chilled as it did so.

She couldn't stop it; her heart started to shake with fright. The level of darkness was so thick, she could taste it. Coppery, cruel...the sickening taste of savage death. She soon felt her heart constrict in its ribcage prison, fearing what has and what will happen. But her shaking did not cease, no matter how hard her frightened object tightened.

_...Riku..._

"You're right, Ansem. Shredding your useless body and taking in the desirable taste of your blood will be most enjoyable. Waiting only heightens the anticipation." She caught a nerve-wracking glimpse of the darkness-bound boy's tongue saunter across his lips; excited, but slow...before her heart shuddered with violent asperity. She glanced away, her stomach threatening to lurch.

Never in her life did she truly fear the chillingly zealous corruption of the darkness as she did now. This child's power was the darkness, his rare ability, his gifted advantage... But if any one emotion became unbalanced in a crisis, he...he couldn't keep control...

She had wanted to believe him to be exaggerating...to be so fearful that his worry was slightly askew. But only hope can be so wrong...

**_-...It is my gift...but it...is also my burden...my curse...-_**

_-His aquamarines glimmered with such fear... Even ignorance wouldn't hide their gleam from my heart...-_

**_-...I swear... I'll never use it again... I just can't...-_**

_No..._

"Then allow me to entice your desires to the level of pure ecstasy..." She could feel the mage's malice hungry gaze fall to her and against her will; she shifted her vision to him... Piercing aureate burned its way into her heart and left its amused satisfaction etched into her faltering soul...

Even though he was retreating, he had been the winner now and as it stood, forever more. Ruinous emotions bombarded her eyes with a fury unknown, drowning her sight until all that remained was a blurred fog of metallic hate...the shimmering gold of euphoric pleasure. She felt sick, the pain and fear hurt so much...

'_That bastard..._'

"Glad to have been such a help. I hope it wasn't too much of a life-altering event..." She was sure he was perfectly ready to continue that brazen comment, but a twisted laugh took possession of his vocal chords instead. His victim's smirk seemed to evaporate into a grimace of confusion at the gut-twisting notes, but that faded just as fast when the mage's form allowed the wall behind him to become visible and he vanished from any possible sight.

...But those violent notes remained, entering her entity and crushing her heart beneath its hateful grasp...

"Noo!" The darkened boy's protest flew from his pale lips like some sort of anguished animal howl, reflecting the uncontrollable state of madness he was now trapped in. It tore through her chest like a gunshot...

'_Wh-What's happened to him? How could the very element that empowers him cause such violent destruction of his mental state? He's like a rabid dog...so out of control... It...it doesn't make any sense!_'

He dove forward like a predator after its fleeing prey; teeth bared into a snarl of hatred and flaming eyes narrowed savagely... She immediately regretted her choice of words as a heart-shattering image ripped through her skull, threatening to take out what little sanity remained in her frightened entity.

She felt so torn; a part of her just wanted to break down and cry while another was completely petrified about what's just happened.

'_How can this be the same guy I've known for weeks now? How can the darkness control him like that? What's going to happen to him?_'

His hellish howl echoed harder through her heart...

'_...So many questions...but where are the answers? No..._'

_...Riku..._

His maddened entity slammed against the uncaring rocks, the vicious attack doing nothing more than damaging his darkness-clothed body. Another murderous cry spattered his lips as his indigo and black stained fists beat and clawed tempestuously at the unmoving stone wall in front of him, as though he were trying to find him within it. His curses were indeterminable, his voice growling out his furious anger and hatred. She could soon see the presence of his crimson life beginning to stain the rocks he was slashing so viciously out at, and despite the darkly covered 'veins' that covered his body, his injuries were slowly revealing themselves to the death-saturated air. But he didn't seem to notice...or cared enough to try... She began to wonder...

'_Is he beyond the state of pain? A place where nothing truly exists except the desire to kill?'_

_...Riku..._

'_...No! He's not like that--His heart's not like that! I...I have to stop him before...before..._'

She didn't really know how to finish that sentence...

Furiously blinking out the majority of her emotion and tears of pain, she forced her battle-weary body to step forward. It flinched repeatedly, though it's mostly because of the continual insanity driven strikes from the corrupted Islander in front of her. His fury scared her; there was no explanation, no help, no solution... She felt helpless, but her fear for his anguished soul seemed to override any other judgment...

_**...She just hoped it wasn't too late...**_

"Riku..." Her voice sounded so weak and shaking so fiercely that she was amazed she even understood the syllables that actually exited her lips. She couldn't tell if he really understood her either, but his unexplainable efforts seemed to recede slightly...or maybe it was just her foolishly hopeful heart...

She forced herself closer, her hand rising slowly in front of her heart. It delicately reached out for his shoulder; it shook unconditionally, her heart pounding harder. His name left her lips again, slightly more audible than before, but still very afraid...

"Riku...?"

"Get the hell away from me!" Her arm recoiled so viciously that she nearly fell backwards. Her heart betrayed her and let a violent gasp fissure throughout her body before it resumed its convulsions. It wasn't even his voice anymore...

'_No! No! Stop it!_'

His darkened entity finally drew still as it glared hatefully at the wall in front of him. Darkly stained aquamarine became more of a black fog as he glowered emptily at the now rusted rocks. His upper lip was curled back slightly, his seemingly sharper teeth gleaming dangerously in the almost light-absent cave. Growling pants scratched at his larynx and cut through the silent air like a knife. His mind had only one word on it and the metallic smell of crimson life around him was making that word pound harder. He tried to find the scent of his magus quarry, but all that swam in his sense of smell was blood...fresh blood... His... Heartless...and...

"B-But Riku... He's gone... There's nobody there..." She was trying so hard to keep her emotions from her voice, but was failing miserably. Her heart was making her entire body shake and it only worsened when he had finally stopped moving. His back was to her, so she had no idea what real state he was in. His violent panting confirmed nothing for her; she knew the allegation that he was just out of breath was stupid, but truthfully, she didn't know what to think at this point.

Slowly...achingly slow...his body, his darkness-empowered body, turned itself to face her. The tattered ivory cloth about his waist swayed in an almost innocent fashion; billowing out before again hugging his obsidian-coloured legs. It didn't seem to 'notice' its owner's change in sanity, but like a loyal dog, it likely wouldn't care regardless. His metallic strands did the same, though their colour somewhat reflected how they truly felt. His hair appeared tarnished, darker, the effect only heightened by the cavern's lacking light. Battle lacerations and his self-caused abrasions glistened, the sickening crimson seeming almost alive.

His aquamarines now a flaming miasma of dark verdant, a blanker shade of her own eyes, bared into her vision. It clawed its way through her terrified entity, slashing away any attempts of protection. It tore into her soul and left it in a state of paralyzed waiting.

The darkness beset on his snarling expression held an air of confusion, as though he hadn't understood what she meant by her previous words. An unnerving stalemate slipped into the battlefield as he pierced her with his corrupted eyes.

All he could hear was the pounding of her heart, the increasingly worried pulse beating in her shaking chest. He could smell her blood all over her entity, spilt from the fight before…before… He couldn't recall and the thought dove from his mind faster than it had entered. Her heart was pushing her life through those cuts…those numerous cuts. It smelled sweet to him, tantalizing…untainted. And her heart seemed the same… _**He wanted both… **_

His throat felt dry now, his panting and bloodlust desire draining away reason to continue standing there. His other prey disappeared from his thoughts instantly at the knowledge of unsullied life…pumped by a perfect heart. His own blood was on fire at the concept…

One step… It only took one step from his darkened entity before the shocking realizations struck her chest…

'_N-No! I can't feel his heart!_'

"Riku!"

No sooner did his precious name burst from her lips, then a flurry of obsidian tendrils shot out from the like-coloured Heartless symbol upon his chest. They violently enclosed about her throat before hurling their prey backwards and pressing her harshly to the adamantine stone wall.

A savage gasp tore from her chest on impact, but was silenced just as quickly as the malice-filled strands tightened malevolently. The black mist felt like a cold, steely knife as it pushed into her trachea and threatened to slice straight to her carotid. The pressure viciously intensified as it held her mostly limp entity above the ground; her feet could barely graze the hefty rocks upon the cave floor. Just like a convicted criminal sentenced to a hanging, she could feel her impenetrable noose of shadows cutting off her life in painfully slow increments.

"...R...i...ku..." Her shaking hands weakly pulled at the tool of her death, though foolishly in vain; only wasting her pathetic energy. She couldn't grip the ice-cold shadows and her already faint strength was ebbing double time. Just trying to cough out his name was a near impossible task.

She could taste her own blood pooling in her mouth; the slick scarlet soon flowing from her lips and over her chin. She could barely swallow anymore; the action just bringing the tendrils closer and drowned her throat in crimson hell. Her shaking eyes closed unwillingly as she tilted her head upwards in a useless attempt to breathe, but only succeeded in heightening the force on her throat.

'_...No... No... Riku... Snap out of it! Please stop... You can't have forgotten about **us**... Riku... It's me...please...uhhhhh... I... I can't...breathe..._'

Even her thoughts were cut off as a vice clamped savagely onto her right wrist and tore it from its faltering position on the unrelenting tendrils that were stealing her life. In an unstable motion of instinctive will, her dying ocean spheres fluttered to blank slits. Her struggle to breathe only deepened as her gaze is met with a pair of bloodthirsty and malicious fogged aqua. His hate saturated eyes burned into her, scarring and ruinously tearing her heart and will to pieces. They held intent, intent to kill; desire, desire to take her life and pleasure, a sadistic pleasure aimed to be enjoyed.

Searing emotion raced over her cheeks; an unbalanced hybrid of pain and fear, her tears cried for his salvation. She was more afraid for his soul than her life, knowing he would suffer a hell of a lot harder than she was now.

'_Riku…please… Come back to me…_'

Despite her current situation, the fading girl's entire body shuddered in revulsion as the maddened boy's lips brushed hungrily over a deep cut on her wrist. Obtained in the violent Heartless battle prior, it had been bleeding fairly well over her arm and hand. Pain shot through her as his tongue excitedly took in the wound, tasted every inch with hellish fervour. The pooling darkness within him shivered with ecstasy as the force swam in savoury fulfillment; her body felt it about as deeply as his did. Despite the frigid shadows that possessed his entity, his lips felt like hot coals; the hand that held hers in place, the same…as though the crimson life within his veins was set aflame. The heat of his mouth cut into her skin maliciously, as if trying to outdo the pain of her throat being crushed. A twisted competition that was rapidly nearing the finish line.

Her heart began to cry harder at the thought of him being lost to her. She didn't want to lose him to the Heartless, whether he killed her or not. But his actions, murky eyes and bloodthirsty taste, was winning…

…_**And she knew it too…**_

The piling blood in her throat was cutting off the little air the shadows weren't and a couple of death-imminent coughs took her entity. A fair portion of the crimson liquid managed to escape her throat and down from her mouth again. And though the tendrils took the action as a signal to close down harder on her, it was _**him**_ that caused her heart to slow…

As her life flowed viciously up from her throat, his lips left her wrist and his blackened aquas fell to the right corner of her mouth. His bloodstained lips pulled themselves into a smirk that seemed to flash in a deep satisfaction that brought such chills to her numb body.

A piercing glow emanated from his left hand, as it appeared to transform. His fingers seemed to be writhing into the claws of the Heartless he now resembled. She had never seen that happen before and grim realizations poisoned the last moments her heart possessed. His mutated hand slowly rose to chest level as his aquamarine spheres flashed sadistically.

His lips gravitated towards her as he brought his heart-snatching tool of death to her sternum. The grip on her throat heightened as he came closer, taking away what little life remained in her.

Her pained eyes finally shut and her heart took the last remnants of her of her strength to try and pull her corrupted love from the depths of hell. She wasn't sure how she managed it, but she didn't have long to dwell upon it either.

"…Riku…"

As her dying breath let his name slip from her heart, the pressure on her throat instantly loosened. The grip on her wrist evaporated and soon after, the shadows over her neck did the same and she crumpled to the ground, landing heavily on all fours. Air bombarded her lungs and violent coughs took hold of her shaking entity. The remaining blood in her throat fell from her lips as she struggled to bring the tense air into her through savage gasps. Tears of pain burst from her stinging vision as she tried desperately to cling to life.

But it wasn't long before her 'lack of self-concern' syndrome kicked in and her heart screamed Riku's name in tearful confusion. Forcing her head upwards, despite the harsh coughs to merely breathe, she pried her burning vision to look up.

…_**Her heart shattered at the sight…**_

He stood there, his hands held out in a position that made him resemble a helpless vagrant pleading for aid. But that was a far cry from what he felt…

His quivering aquamarines gazed brokenly at his hated hands, the other back to its original state. No longer blackened, but completely refused by the light. A numbing shade of black viridian; saturated by tears, disbelief, but mostly, a gripping aura of self-betrayal. His crimson-soaked appendages stung painfully, but he could barely feel it… His emotional anguish was far greater than anyone should ever have to feel.

'_No… No… It can't… No…I…I…didn't… No…_'

She could hear his faltering will, his entire body going into agonized shock. Even though she was the one about to have her trachea crushed and her heart ripped out, she cried for the excruciating pain that possessed her agonized paladin. He fought so hard against it, but it took him anyway. And now, he would be forced to remember that even the most malicious nightmare couldn't concoct...forevermore...

_**A demon who has tasted blood... The deepest darkness has broken free... A hunger that will never be satiated...**_

_...He beat it only once, the effort nearly killing him... Now that it had reawakened, he feared for his sanity, his salvation...but mostly... **her** life..._

'_M-My tongue... It's... It's...swimming in…blood... No... No!_'

She could feel her throat bruising with each passing second, pain screaming through her every time she took a breath, as pathetic as they were. But the intake of air was no longer even a concern. It tasted bitter to her; the foul taste of corruptive darkness. But it was Riku that made her lungs take in that blackened air... She wasn't going to die on him now...though she knew it wouldn't ease his suffering any...

...The pain she could feel from him was insulting to call harsh. She could finally feel his heart again, and though the realization relieved her...the anguish it now held left a dull pit of flaming ice in her chest.

"Riku..."

'_No... No... I didn't... This can't have! No! No!_'

Ocean shimmered and drowned at the sight of their love's sorrow-filled aqua.

"Riku..."

"_**NO!**_"

His tattered body collapsed to its knees as though someone violently kicked his legs out. His piercing cry of emotion echoed hauntingly about the tear-stained cave, not one shred of pain hindered in the broken notes.

His heart took him, sharp emotion slashing his pale cheeks into a chaos of emotion. Not one second was censored from his memory and all he could see was the true face of hell reflected in the dying and terrified eyes of the one he cared so deeply for.

Casting off the concern of breathing normally, she crawled those few inches to her shattered love and embraced him tightly. Straightening as much as she could on her knees, she pulled him against her; his eye level lay parallel with her collarbone and her chin fell onto his shaking head. His sorrow felt icy on her bloodstained flesh, but she desperately accepted it. She wanted to take his pain away, and as it stood, it was all she could do.

"...Riku... It-It's okay... Everything's fine..."

"Tell me I didn't..."

"Riku..."

"Tell me I didn't attack...you, please! Misty...tell me I didn't..._**change**_!"

She wanted to lie for him, ached to just make the truth into some stupid, sick fabrication of someone's twisted mind, but she couldn't... Her shaken and bloodied lips tried to move and she ordered the breath to vacate her wounded throat, but she just couldn't pull the story from herself. A 'weakness' that would haunt her for too long.

"...Riku..."

"Oh God... No... No... No!"

"Riku...it's okay... It's okay... "

"No! It's not... It's not... No..."

It was his turn to have his heart face a tearing decision, each side stalemating the other to the point of insanity. He wanted to push her away, get as far away from the one person who would be 'foolish' enough to suffer for him. He had to; he knew he had to... His demon had tasted her life and would make it a personal calling to savour it again. He feared for her life, her soul; her entity itself, especially her heart... He had no damn clue what he would do to her _**next time**_ and that solitary thought begged him to leave her, make her leave...if nothing, then for her own protection...

But he couldn't… The other argument wouldn't let her go. He was never open with his emotions, but ached so desperately to be loved, to be hugged, to be treasured in someone's heart. And after what he had just subjugated the only one who has ever cared for him in this manner, he just wanted to find the non-existent solace that lay in someone's arms. If ever there were a time he wanted to be held in a warm, understanding-even-if-you-don't, embrace; now would be over-qualified. And it was that over-qualification that kept his fading heart close to hers.

"Sshh… Riku… I'm here… I'm fine… It's going to be okay…"

For what seemed like an eternity, the two anguished teenagers drowned in the bitter, salty emotions of the other. She cried for him and him for her conversely. Battle-worn barely described the injuries left behind from the scuffle that summoned the gates of the past.

He clung to her, as his emotions tore his body to shreds. And though the sound of her heart was an accelerant for his bloodlust, it now was the only thing that brought him comfort.

_**But realizations dug into his back like a knife…**_

'Life' as he knew it was now dead… He could never again keep _**it**_ under constant control. Any time he risked the darkness, it could take him randomly. And there was no certainty of him returning afterwards…


End file.
